POTS stands for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. It’s a type of dysautonomia, which basically means dysfunction of your autonomic nervous system (ANS). Your ANS controls things like heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, fight/flight/freeze response, etc. When I stand up, my heart rate and diastolic BP go super high. Then they crash and I pass out due to lack of blood/oxygen in my brain. If I’m standing, I have to be moving or I get sick and pass out. I’m always pacing and wiggling. Or sitting or laying down. I can only sit for about an hour. There are two types of POTS. I have the hyperadrenergic kind. When I stand up, my norepinephrine/noradrenaline blood levels go really high. My body is in a constant physiological state of fight or flight. It makes me shaky and extra jumpy. It looks like anxiety to an observer, but it’s not anxiety at all. It’s dysautonomia. On average it takes 7 years to get a diagnosis, usually because doctors are close-minded and say it’s all in your head. But it’s not. It’s in your autonomic nervous system. It took me 13 years to get a diagnosis.